Hi All!
I guess this item would be best suited for the Scubapro faithfuls or anyone who is a BC expert. I need to ID the Model of this ScubaPro BC and approximate year/s of manufacture. Also any tech'l specs (e.g. Lift Capacity etc.) and current fair market price info would be great. It is a men's size Medium, weight integrated and black floatation type.
View attachment 122237
Much appreciated
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It is indeed a SP Seahawk which was manufactured from 1996 to 1998 and is IMO one of the best wing BCDs SP ever made.
They came out with three interchangeable bladder sizes of 32lb, 48lb and 72lb of lift and were held in place by means of a zip along the shoulder, two bolts through the back pack and two elasticised side fastening clips.
Whoever designed this device must have been a diver who knew about practicality and streamlining with the gusseted large pockets to hold a mask or SMB next to the bladder and the smaller pockets in front for trauma shears and signalling mirror or whatever. Another little known feature is that it will comfortably slip in a Spare Air cylinder in the gap behind/between the mask pocket ( handy for crusty old lungs in an emergency ).
This Seahawk uses the Zeagle weight integration system where the weights go into the zip pockets and are dumped by pulling on the tabs to release the weights. I prefer to divide my weights between a weight harness carrying enough lead to keep me neutral in my wetsuit should I have to dump the rig for whatever reason and the rest in the BCD. The bladder also has two height adjustment holes to allow for trimming for tank weight and diver size and is of donut, not useless horse shoe design.
There are only subtle differences between the small and medium harness, namely longer webbing and cummerbund and the same applies between the large and extra large harness. They are simple to put on in or out of water as they won't get twisted/tangled webbing which plagues the so called real BP/W setups.
Be aware of counterfeit versions which have no blue lines in the webbing, no SP written across the inflator hose retainer and the SP signage on the pockets is mounted higher up on the flaps in solid letter stitching instead of hollow. The one you have pictured is the real deal and looks to be in very good condition. Harness and bladder are date stamped in the neck under the zipper and will look like this 20696142 showing it was made on 20 June 96 and build no.142
A fair price will depend on the condition it is in as I have seen them for as little as $120 up to $435 for a really good one, remember you are diving something that was ahead of its time and is of better quality than some of the kitchy plastic gear produced today. I own several modern BCDs of varying brands and they are all gathering dust in favor of the old Seahawk.
